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EHA 2025 | The impact of venetoclax-based therapies on autoimmune cytopenias in patients with CLL
In this video, Candida Vitale, MD, PhD, University of Turin, Turin, Italy, provides insight into the impact of venetoclax (ven)-based therapies on autoimmune cytopenias (AIC) in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), outlining the findings of a retrospective multicenter study conducted by the European Research Initiative on CLL (ERIC). The findings show that ven-based therapies have a beneficial impact on pre-existing AICs. Additionally, the incidence of treatment-emergent AICs is rare and is more frequently observed in patients treated with ven monotherapy versus those treated with ven-based combinations. This interview took place at the 30th Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) in Milan, Italy.
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Transcript
So at this year’s EHA meeting, we are presenting an abstract regarding the impact of venetoclax-based treatment on autoimmune cytopenias in CLL and specifically focus on the differential impact of venetoclax monotherapy versus venetoclax-based combinations in this patient cohort. So basically, we previously showed that in a smaller cohort of patients, venetoclax induced a higher incidence of autoimmune cytopenias as compared to other targeted agents such as ibrutinib and idelalisib...
So at this year’s EHA meeting, we are presenting an abstract regarding the impact of venetoclax-based treatment on autoimmune cytopenias in CLL and specifically focus on the differential impact of venetoclax monotherapy versus venetoclax-based combinations in this patient cohort. So basically, we previously showed that in a smaller cohort of patients, venetoclax induced a higher incidence of autoimmune cytopenias as compared to other targeted agents such as ibrutinib and idelalisib. So here we wanted to assess whether in a larger cohort of patients this was confirmed and actually to see if there was an impact of the combination treatment.
So we collected data within the ERIC, the European Research Initiative on CLL, so a big organization, a big group of centers. So we collected data from 19 countries and 56 centers in total for a total of 1,720 patients, so a very, very big cohort. And there we showed that pre-existing autoimmune cytopenias are present in almost 12% of patients and the treatment with venetoclax is able to control or resolve the event in most patients when used as a single agent and in combination.
And regarding treatment-emergent autoimmune cytopenias, which was the most important focus, so the cytopenias that tend to occur in patients who did not have a previous event, we showed that actually the rate is quite low. It’s about 2.6% in the whole cohort, but when we analyze only patients treated with venetoclax monotherapy, that rate is 4.3%. And it’s significantly lower in patients treated with venetoclax in combination – it’s 2.1%. So we were able to show that actually there is a difference between using venetoclax as a single agent and venetoclax in combination. However, these rates are still very low. And the outcome of all the patients is good. So clinicians were able to control the events in the majority of patients.
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